Autonomous worksites are designed to provide productivity gains through more consistency in processes. For example, an autonomous mining worksite may have a plurality of robust autonomous sub-systems that are integrated with mining trucks. The operation of the worksite, such as the operation of the mining trucks, is usually controlled by computers and other electronic controllers rather than human operators. As a result, autonomous mining may minimize the environmental impact on the mining worksite, enhance the productivity of the mining trucks, and reduce the human resources for controlling the operation of the worksite.
On an autonomous worksite, such as a mining worksite, controls of operations are usually performed with the goal to optimize certain indices related to the autonomous system based on available recourses. Examples of indices to be maximized may include productivity, efficiency, profitability, etc. Meanwhile, it is also beneficial that certain other indices, such as high fuel usage, asset under-use, and high dealer repair frequency, are minimized. Each of these indices may be influenced by various factors and the maximum/minimum of each of the indices may be achieved when the set of factors satisfies a certain condition.
As an example, a mining worksite may include a plurality of hauler dump trucks used to haul materials (e.g., iron ore) from the mining worksite, and a plurality of utility trucks used to clean and maintain the haul road. The operation of these trucks may potentially produce value, for example, from sale of the iron ore hauled by the system. Meanwhile, some associated costs may also occur, such as operating and maintanence costs, storage costs, etc. Therefore, the productivity of the mining worksite may be influenced by several factors including, but not limited to, economic market information such as commodity prices (e.g., price of the iron ore), as well as local worksite information such as the overall site velocity of the trucks, number of trucks dispatched, operating and maintenance costs, inventory size, etc.
Some of these factors may change dynamically and rapidly. For example, the commodity price at which the iron ore can be sold may be driven by supply and demand. Therefore, it is helpful if accurate and real time control decisions can be made to plan the available resources on the autonomous worksite. Accordingly, there is a need for a control optimizer that collects information influencing certain indices of the autonomous system and provide real-time strategic control to the autonomous worksite in response to the collected information so that the selected indices are optimized.
A computer-based method and system developed to support and coordinate professional and managerial work processes are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,877,153 to Konnersman (“the '153 patent”). In particular, the '153 patent discloses a method to model professional and managerial work processes as networks of multiple decisions. The model may include multiple participants who are in specific and differentiated roles. The system disclosed by the '153 patent may include generating project modules to direct and guide the behavior of the participants in the work process.
Although the method and system of the '153 patent may be useful in controlling an autonomous worksite and coordinating the equipment available on the worksite, it may nevertheless still be suboptimal. That is, although the method of the '153 patent models the work processes, it does not provide a function to optimize any indices associated with the professional and managerial work processes. As a result, the decisions made to direct and guide the participants' behavior do not result in an optimized value of a certain index that is most important to the work processes. Furthermore, the system described in the '153 patent does not allow the user to override its control decisions. In addition, the project modules and decisions, once generated by the system disclosed by the '153 patent may not be updated in real time in response to changes in the work processes. For example, participants may be added to or removed from the work processes, and the schedule and availability of the participants to perform a certain role may change dynamically and constantly.
The system and method of the present disclosure are directed towards overcoming one or more of the constraints set forth above.